Who Is Who? Petro Confuses Salvador Allende’s Daughter With The Writer Isabel Allende

The president of Colombia, Gustavo Petro, confused the senator and daughter of the ousted Chilean president Salvador Allende (1970-1973), Isabel Allende Bussi, with the famous writer Isabel Allende Llona, which unleashed criticism against her on social networks.

"With Isabel Allende, daughter of fellow president Salvador Allende, one of the best writers in Latin America," Petro wrote on X (formerly Twitter) and shared a photo with the senator.

Petro's mistake and the reactions on the internet

For that reason, the president deleted the message and then published a new one that said: "With Isabel Allende, daughter of President Allende. Isabel was in the Moneda Palace with her father the day the army bombed the Palace to overthrow "Allende".

"There she saw him for the last time, she took to the streets terrified and decided to denounce what had happened worldwide. Thousands of militants from the left and from worker and peasant organizations were murdered, tortured and disappeared," the president added in his new message.

The president's mistake caused the publication of dozens of memes in which social media users published photos of Petro with personalities and then said that they were the children of other figures who had the same last name.

Likewise, in X the main trend in Colombia this morning is "Isabel Allende." Petro participated on Monday in Santiago in the commemoration events of the 50th anniversary of the 1973 coup d'état.

What was Petro doing in Chile?

Monday marked 50 years since General Augusto Pinochet led a coup d'état against the government of socialist President Salvador Allende (1970-1973), who committed suicide in the presidential palace of La Moneda before being captured by the military.

Read also: 50 Years of the Coup: Thousands of Women in Chile Make Their Own Commemoration

The coup began a cruel 17-year dictatorship that left more than 40,000 victims, including at least 3,200 murdered opponents, of which 1,469 were victims of forced disappearance.

Isabel Allende: Who is Who?

The writer Allende is a relative of the overthrown president, as she is the daughter of Tomás Allende, the president's cousin. However, she is not known primarily for her relationship with Salvador Allende but for her work. Her extensive and diverse work has been awarded and widely sold in Latin America.

Read also: IIsabel Allende's Perspective On Border Violence

Salvador Allende's daughter, on the other hand, has a political career. She is currently a Senator in the Chilean Congress and is also a member of the Chilean Socialist Party. What Gustavo Petro was not wrong about was that Isabel Allende Bussi was with her father fifty years ago on the day of the coup.